Monday, November 9, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 102 | Monday, November 9, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Offense pounds Yale for high-scoring gridiron win “The key was Theodhosi,” Estes said, adding that he was “not surprised by how well he ran.”

Nothing suggested Brown would Theodhosi, who has been the have a high-scoring day against Yale. second man in the Bears’ two-back Brown’s offense was shut out against system this season, stepped into the Penn a week leading role when Zachary Tronti ’11 35 Brown ago, and Yale sustained an injury that sidelined him 21 Yale had allowed for the rest of the game.

Estes said the injury, likely a torn just 10 points against Brown in the last two years ACL and MCL, will probably end combined. Going into the game, Yale’s Tronti’s season, though X-rays have defense had ranked seventh in the na- not come back yet. tion in scoring. Now, it ranks 12th.

Quarterback Kyle Newhall-CaThe Bears (5-3, 3-2 Ivy) put up ballero ’11 was 23-of-30 passing for 35 points and gained 494 269 yards with two touchyards against the Bulldogs downs and an interception.

SPORTS in a 35-21 win Saturday in He also had four carries for New Haven, Conn.

20 yards rushing and a touchdown.

“We wanted to prove we are the “I think Kyle made some great best offense in the Ivy League,” said plays for us,” Estes said. “He ran the wide receiver Bobby Sewall ’10. ball extremely well.”

The Brown offense, which is typiNewhall-Caballero’s favorite threats cally pass-focused, showed its most on the pass were, as usual, Sewall and balanced attack of the season, gaining fellow wideout Buddy Farnham ’10.

269 yards through the air and 225 on Farnham had six catches for 62 yards the ground. and two touchdowns, while Sewall con“We don’t choose to do a balanced tributed five receptions for 61 yards. attack,” said Head Coach Phil Estes.

But Newhall-Caballero’s one inInstead, he said, the Bears just took terception was a costly one — it was what Yale’s defense gave them. returned for a touchdown by the BullFrom the first quarter on, Yale (4-4, dog defense.

2-3) let the Bears turn to their rushYale’s offense found the end ing attack. By the end of the game, zone twice and added a field goal. the Bears had 42 rushes and only 31 But they were 0-of-3 on points after passes. touchdown.

Spiro Theodhosi ’12, who had just The Bulldogs gained 345 total 11 carries this season before Saturday, yards but threw three interceptions rushed 25 times for 167 yards and one continued on page 9 touchdown.

By Dan Alexander Senior Staff Writer

Kim Perley / Herald File Photo

PLMEs will now have to let the University know of their med school application plans by Sept. of their senior year.

Policy change rankles PLMEs

By Hannah Moser Senior Staf f Writer

Students enrolled in the Program in Liberal Medical Education who apply to medical schools other than Brown’s will forfeit the spots reserved for them, according to a new policy enacted this week.

PLME students received an e-mail and a letter in their mailboxes on Wednesday informing them of the change. Starting with the class of MD applicants who hope to begin in 2011, students must inform the PLME office by

Sept. 15 of their senior year — or each year they are on deferral — if they intend to “apply out.” By applying to other medical schools, they forfeit their spots at Alpert Medical School, although they may re-apply to the Med School by the standard process.

Previously, there was no policy that addressed applying out, according to Associate Dean of Medicine Philip Gruppuso. “It was never an issue,” he said, because usually no more than one student per year applied out.

However, around five students

from the undergraduate class of 2010 are sending applications elsewhere, Gruppuso said, and administrators anticipate similar numbers from the class of 2011.

Each year, the University enrolls about 50 PLMEs. Incoming Med School classes total around 100 students.

According to Gruppuso, the policy was added so that Med School admissions officers could have a clearer picture of how many spots would be available in the continued on page 3

Burglaries most common Profs, grad students take to the fields campus crime in 2008

By Brian Mastroianni Senior Staf f Writer

By Ellen Cushing Senior Staf f Writer

inside

The Department of Public Safety reported 111 criminal offenses occurring on campus and in surrounding areas in 2008, according to an annual crime repor t released by the department earlier this fall.

Of those 111, the vast majority, 84, were burglaries. There were also nine robberies and eight motor-vehicle thefts. There were five reported cases of aggravated assault, four forcible sex offenses and one case of arson, according to the report.

Consistent with previous years’ statistics, there were zero reported homicides or negligent manslaughters.

The report, which is federally mandated by the Clery Act, summarizes disciplinary referrals and

News.....1-4 Arts........5-6 Spor ts...7-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

www.browndailyherald.com

crimes reported to DPS and the Providence Police for the calendar years 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Last year’s crime statistics represent a dramatic increase in the number of reported thefts. Last year’s 84 burglaries and eight motor vehicle thefts were up from 54 burglaries and four motor vehicle thefts in 2007.

Mark Porter, director of public safety, said the rise in theft was partially attributable to the bad economy, adding that Brown’s statistics were generally consistent with larger trends.

Porter also said 96 percent of burglaries occurred in unlocked dorm rooms. “We are seeing a rise in the issue of theft in unlocked and unattended rooms,” he said.

One student, Ishaan Sethi ’13,

The intramural soccer team Applied Math warms up on the field behind the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center.

The team members pass a ball back and forth, each wearing a simple white T-shirt as his uniform. But one player in particular stands out: With

FEATURE his thinning white hair, Professor of Applied Mathematics Basilis Gidas can easily be distinguished from his teammates, who are mostly undergrads from the department.

Gidas may seem an unconventional teammate, but he is one of the many professors, staff members and graduate students at Brown who compete alongside — and against ­— undergrads in intramural sports.

Unlike varsity and club teams,

continued on page 3

continued on page 4

Hilary Rosenthal / Herald

Professor of Applied Mathematics Basilis Gidas is one of many professors and grad students who participate in intramural sports.

Arts, 5

Sports, 7

Opinions, 11

M u s i c a l r e v i va l “Leavittsburg, Ohio” marks an end to Brownbroker’s two-year hiatus

Alum Scores Big Jeff Larentowicz’s ’05 career in professional soccer began with Bruno

Public u. Squeeze Jonathan Topaz ’12 writes about the pressures on higher public education

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Monday, November 9, 2009

C ampus N EWS

Spate of Halloween thefts hits dorms across campus The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Oct. 15 and Nov 2. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. DPS

CRIME LOG does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Oct. 15 8:27 a.m. Student reported that she left her room in Hegeman Hall E on Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. and locked her room door. When she returned to her room on Oct. 15 at 1:10 a.m., her door was unlocked and her roommates were asleep in their rooms.

When she entered her room, she noticed that her laptop computer was missing from her desk. One of her roommates stated that when she returned to her room at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 14, the room door was locked, but that she left the room door open after that time and that she and another roommate went to bed at 10 p.m. They reported that they heard

the room door open at 12:15 a.m. and thought it was their roommate coming in and went back to sleep.

Oct. 18 1:42 a.m. Brown Police were dispatched to Wickenden Street in response to a loud party involving Brown students. Upon arriving, they met with Providence officers who had already dispersed the party. Two Brown students were issued citations by the Providence Police.

1:19 p.m. Complainant stated that between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., someone broke the passenger-side window on his rental car at Charlesfield and Brown streets and took his GPS device from the dashboard.

2:55 p.m. Upon arrival at Goddard House, a Brown police officer was met by two student victims. One stated that she left her room at midnight and returned home at 2 a.m. and went to bed. Her door was left unlocked from midnight until the time a theft was discovered. Her roommate was not in the room during the night. She returned to her room in the morning.

The items stolen were a laptop and a pocketbook containing a credit card, debit card and a key to the room. Facilities Management was notified and responded to change the locks.

9:05 p.m. Victim stated that she and her roommate were out of their Goddard room between 11 p.m. Oct.

17 and 2 a.m. Oct 18. The door was left unlocked during that time and while they slept during the night.

When they heard that their friends downstairs had items stolen, they searched their room and noticed that their TV accessory that stores music and rents movies over the Internet was missing.

Oct. 23 10:27 a.m. Student stated that he last saw his bicycle locked to a pole at 86 Waterman St. on Oct. 22 at 11:30 p.m. On Oct. 23 at 10:27 a.m., he noticed his bicycle and lock missing.

The pole that his bicycle was locked to was approximately five feet tall and is used as a tree support pole — so it was possible that someone picked up the bicycle and lock over the pole.

Oct. 26 11:56 p.m. Student stated his wallet was stolen from the game room in Morris Hall between 11:15 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. He stated that there were four unknown males in the room during that time and that they left the room before he noticed his wallet missing.

Oct. 27 5:32 p.m. A Brown employee reported that sometime between 3:45 p.m. and 5 p.m., someone smashed

the passenger-side front-door window on his vehicle at Prospect and Olive streets and took a GPS system that had been mounted on the front windshield.

Oct. 31 1:55 a.m. Student reported that, sometime between 9:15 p.m. on Oct. 30 and 1:50 a.m. on Oct. 31, an unknown person entered his Bronson House room and removed several valuable items. His room door was locked during this period of time, but the window was pushed open and the screen was cut. Items stolen included a flat-screen TV, a gaming console and game, a digital camera and a vacuum.

There is a suspect at this time, and the case is under investigation.

2:51 a.m. Brown student stated that he and his roommate left their Grad Center C dorm room around 11:30 p.m. When they returned about 1:30 a.m they noticed that a TV, two laptops and an iPod were missing from the room. They stated that their dorm room door sometimes does not close on its own. There were no signs of forced entry.

10:20 a.m. Student stated that she left her Machado House dorm room at about 9:30 a.m. and said her roommate was sleeping and that she did not lock the room door. When her roommate woke up at about 11 a.m., she noticed the reporting party’s laptop was gone. The roommate said while she was sleeping, she heard someone enter the room and heard some shuffling at a desk. She thought it was her roommate returning to get something. Inside the computer there were two $20 bills. Also missing was a black leather computer case. There is a suspect, and the case is under investigation.

11:25 a.m. Student stated that at

around 8:30 a.m., an unknown suspect entered his unsecured Sears House room while he was sleeping.

He thought that the suspect made a mistake and entered the wrong room. He didn’t think anything of it and went back to sleep. The student later discovered that he was missing $80 from his wallet, which was on the desk.

1:20 p.m. Student reported that sometime between 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 and midnight on Oct. 31, someone entered her Gregorian Quad A suite and took her laptop. She reported that it had been on the table in the lounge. The lounge area is just inside the main entry door, and she reported that the door to the suite had been left ajar during the evening.

5:05 p.m. Student victim stated that he left his Grad Center C suite at 12:30 a.m. He left his door propped open and went to a party. He returned to his suite at 2:20 a.m. and closed the door. In the morning, he noticed that his laptop was missing.

Nov. 1 2:46 a.m. Sometime between 12:45 a.m. and 1:15 a.m., an unknown person entered a student’s unlocked Olney House dorm room and removed his laptop and speakers. The student was in the bathroom during this period of time.

9:43 a.m. Two students had their laptops stolen from their unattended Andrews Hall room, which was unlocked.

6:17 p.m. Officers were dispatched to 70 Ship St. for a larceny from a motor vehicle. Reporting party stated she noticed a green pocketbook on the sidewalk with the contents continued on page 4

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Monday, November 9, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

100

Page 3

“It’s surprising and concerning.”

— Aurora Durfee ’10, on the spike in burglaries in 2008

Strong debut for GLISP bodes well for second semester

Reported on-campus crimes

80

By Leonardo Moauro Contributing Writer

60

2007 2008

40 20 0

Burglary

Robbery

Jessie Calihan / Herald

Motor Vehicle Aggravated Assault Thefts

Forcible Sex Offenses

Arson

Burglaries rose steeply from ’07 to ’08 continued from page 1 said he was surprised by the number of burglaries.

“I would think it would be like 10,” he said. “That’s really something I wouldn’t expect.”

This year’s statistics also show an increase in the number of reported hate crimes on campus — five in 2008, up from zero in 2007 and one in 2006. Of those five, three were classified as vandalism and two were classified as intimidation. All involved race or religion.

Some students expressed concern about the spike in this type of crime.

“It’s surprising and concerning,” said Aurora Durfee ’10. “Of course, I’d like to expect that we’re moving toward a more accepting environment, especially at Brown.”

But Por ter said this uptick was due to a change in the U.S. Depar tment of Education’s reporting regulations, which are binding on all colleges and universities participating in federal financial aid programs, including Pell Grants, Stafford Loans and Perkins Loans.

“In past years, intimidation and vandalism were not reportable hate crimes, and this past year they were,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. He said the majority of last year’s hate crimes were “vandalism-related incidents involving bias and derogator y graffiti.”

But the number of forcible sex offenses in 2008 dropped by more than half — from 10 in 2007 to four in 2008.

Vice President for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn, whose office manages

the University’s sexual assault resources, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that it is difficult to identify a single cause for the drop, especially as sexual assault is widely known to be one of the most underreported crimes, both on and off college campuses.

The DPS report also listed the number of disciplinar y referrals for alcohol, drugs and weapons law violations. In 2008, there were nine referrals for weapons violations, 29 for drugs and 31 for alcohol. This represents a departure from 2007, when there were 77 reported liquor law violations and 18 drug violations.

While there were no reported arrests for the 2008 violations, those found to be acting out of accordance with the University’s policy are referred to the Office of Student Life and are subject to the University’s disciplinar y code.

PLME policy penalizes ‘applying out’ continued from page 1 class.

“This is totally about our needing to fill the medical school class,” Gruppuso said. “We’re not trying to manipulate the careers of the PLME students.”

Students applying to medical school can normally accept a spot at one school while remaining on the waitlist for several others. A place on the waitlist can open up as late as the day before orientation, and students have the option to accept it, leaving the rejected school scrambling to fill the spot.

Guaranteeing PLMEs a spot while allowing them to apply out, Gruppuso said, would effectively allow them to make Brown their “safety school.”

Gruppuso said the Med School receives between 70 and 80 applications for each spot in the class, and “for every two students who inject uncertainty into the program … we need another interview day.”

“It actually just became a ne-

cessity for us to be able to fill our medical school class,” Gruppuso said.

But current PLME undergraduates, who won’t be granted exceptions, feel the policy violates the conditions under which they entered the program, according to Arune Gulati ’11, who ser ves on the PLME Senate.

Gulati said the policy, if enacted, should apply only to incoming classes and not to students who entered the program before the change. He said many PLME students — who may have also applied to similar programs at other schools — made their decisions based on the program’s leniency.

“The policy makes a lot of sense for the medical school, and I definitely see where they’re coming from,” Gulati said. But now, he added, “they’ve changed the whole game.”

Gulati added that some students apply out in order to weigh their options for financial aid.

The change is especially frustrating, he said, for fifth-semester

juniors who have already prepared to apply out by taking secondsemester organic chemistry and paying to take MCAT courses, neither of which are required by the PLME guidelines.

“It would make perfect sense if people being admitted to the program knew about the policy beforehand,” Gulati said.

“It should not have to affect the classes who are already here,” said Dominic Wu ’12, a class representative to the PLME Senate. Wu is not planning to apply out, but he collected the opinions of several PLME students and included them in an e-mail to Associate Dean of Medicine Julianne Ip, who sent out the notification letters.

Ip for warded the e-mail to Gruppuso, who said he plans to meet with a group of juniors and hold a town-hall meeting with firstyears and sophomores.

Wu said he invited his classmates to come and voice their opinions at the next PLME Senate meeting on Sunday.

The Global Independent Study Initiative, which debuted this semester, drew 14 participants in its inaugural run and is looking forward to receiving a second crop of proposals for the spring, said Kendall Brostuen, director of the office of international programs.

To create a project under the Initiative — known as a GLISP and similar to an Independent Study Project or a Group Independent Study Project — students must design a research project that they then carry out during a semester abroad under the guidance of a Brown professor. It aims to give students a chance to remain involved with Brown’s faculty and curriculum while abroad, Brostuen said. Students also receive a Brown course credit upon completion of the program.

The program “really sets Brown apart from other institutions,” Brostuen said, adding that Brown is the first U.S. school that he knows of to implement such a program.

GLISP applications for the spring semester were due last week, but the Office of International Programs “is going to try to be very flexible with the deadline,” Brousten said. He said he expects the program to receive fewer applications in the spring than it did this fall because students did not have a whole summer to prepare for it this time around.

In addition to receiving course credit, GLISP research can also serve as a foundation for a senior thesis, Brostuen said, and it can deepen a student-faculty relationship that might otherwise be truncated by the semester abroad.

Students currently completing GLISPs said they found the program valuable.

“I thought that conducting a GLISP might also give me a better idea of what topic I’d like to pursue for my senior thesis,” wrote Marina Irgon ’11 in an e-mail to The Herald from the Czech Republic. Irgon’s GLISP evaluates how the recent economic crisis has manifested itself in the Czech Republic.

“One of the greatest downfalls of study abroad is the general lack of academic rigor,” Irgon wrote. “Conducting a GLISP is a great way to be academi-

cally productive while abroad.”

A GLISP allows students to “use primary resources or resources that can only be found in the study-abroad city or country,” wrote Celina Pedrosa ’11, who is studying in France this semester, in an e-mail to The Herald.

Her project focuses on the cultural impact and social integration of Brazilian exiles in Paris who fled Brazil’s dictatorship in the 1970s.

But for some students, the process of formulating a research topic proves challenging.

“For me, the hardest part of the application process was designing my own topic,” wrote Megan Lin ’11 in an e-mail to The Herald. She is studying monetary economic policy in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics.

Professor of Hispanic Studies Julio Ortega, who is currently advising Michelle Levinson ’11 on a GLISP she is doing in Cuba, said a rigorous process was important to making the projects valuable. “I hope it is difficult — that there are rigorous criteria — because internationalization must be a serious undertaking for all concerned,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Though an ocean may divide them from their advisees, faculty advisers are expected to maintain close involvement with students who are doing GLISPs, and they ultimately grade the final research paper that emerges from the study.

Patricia Symonds, an adjunct associate professor of anthropology who is advising Eleanor Chute ’11 during her stay in China, regularly e-mails and chats with Chute via Skype and also responds to specific questions, Symonds wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. She also said she is a resource if Chute is simply “feeling the need to talk to someone at ‘home.’”

The research proposals are reviewed by a committee composed of members from the OIP, the College Curriculum Council — which also reviews ISPs and GISPs — and the Office of the Dean of the College.

The committee did not reject any GLISP applications for this semester, Brostuen said, but it did ask some students to clarify specifics of their projects.

“We were amazed at the kind of proposals we were getting,” Brostuen said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Monday, November 9, 2009

“It is about community — bringing students and staff together” — Diane Yee, Intramural and Facility Coordinator

For intramural athletes, winning is often an afterthought continued from page 1 intramural teams do not belong to conferences or leagues that compete in regional or national tournaments, only playing against other Brown teams on campus. With 305 teams in 13 different sports, intramural athletics provide a less competitive outlet for faculty, students and staff to leave behind the stress of the classroom and the workplace.

“I’ve always viewed intramurals as something of a recreational outlet,” said Intramural and Facility Coordinator Diane Yee. “School is more than education. It is about community — bringing students and staff together.”

Yee, who participates in intramural football and softball, oversees the 1,687 members of the Brown community who play intramural sports — including 167 faculty and staff members and 482 grad students.

Linda Chernak GS, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in geological sciences, has been playing for the department’s Rolling Stones soccer and softball teams since her first year at Brown.

“Intramural spor ts gives us something to do other than research,” Chernak said. “It is a nice break.”

Chernak added that she enjoys playing with her department’s fac-

ulty members. “It is nice to see our professors in a different light,” she said.

Rachael Mazzella ’12 said she understands why grad students would want to participate in intramurals. As captain of Synapsed, an intramural soccer team, Mazzella has frequently played against grad students.

“I love playing intramural soccer, and if I were three years older, I would want to have the opportunity to do it still,” she said. “It’s fun for everyone.”

The only downside, Mazzella said, is the higher skill level of some of the grad students.

“I wish it was a more equal distribution of grad students and undergrads, but I wouldn’t really say that it is a big deal,” she said. “We all still have fun.”

Luiz Valente PhD’83, associate professor of Portuguese and Brazilian studies, has been a dedicated intramural athlete since 1987, when he joined the Eulers — pronounced “Oilers” — a hockey team started by physics graduate students and named after the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

Growing up in Brazil, Valente played volleyball and soccer for most of his life and did not discover his love for hockey until he was an undergrad at Bowdoin College. “Ev-

eryone at Bowdoin played hockey,” he said.

Valente, who has served as the Eulers’ team captain and also as a faculty adviser to Brown’s varsity hockey team, said hockey is one of those sports that “once you start playing it, you never want to stop.”

The Eulers have included a mix of faculty and students from disciplines as varied as music, philosophy and chemistry — as well as some of Valente’s students.

“Once you are on the ice, you want to play,” Valente said. “You don’t think about relationships beyond the ice.”

This relaxed attitude to sports drew Miranda Fasulo to Brown’s intramural program as soon as she arrived on campus as the manager for planning and special programs at the Watson Institute for International Studies. An athlete in high school, Fasulo joined Slam, a women’s five-on-five basketball team, looking to find a break from her life in the office.

“We play for fun,” she said.

“We’re serious enough where we want to win … But in the end, we don’t care if we win or lose.”

Though the team was started by an undergrad, over time it came to include mostly staff and graduate students associated with Watson.

Hilary Rosenthal / Herald

Intramural teams, such as the Applied Math soccer team (above), include players of all ages. Fun, not wins, is the primary goal.

Fasulo said intramural sports provide a fun way to get exercise and meet other people who have a passion for sports, as well as for building the morale of University employees.

“It’s great to just get people to use a gym, period,” she said. “It’s just a great benefit to the staff, makes them feel young and keeps them in shape.”

But Fasulo said she has found the schedule for games — which sometimes start as late as 11 p.m.

— inconvenient for staff and faculty, who have to be ready for work by 8:30 a.m. the next day. She said she is also frustrated by the low number of women who play intramural sports on campus. Eightyone percent of grad students and 83 percent of faculty and staff who play intramural sports are men, according to Yee. Because of the disproportionate ratio of male to female intramural athletes, Slam is taking a break this season. Instead, the team members have been keeping their shooting skills sharp by playing together on weekends.

Yee said it has been difficult to structure the intramural program to acheive a more equal gender distribution. Having brainstormed options, including separate leagues that were all-male, all-female and coed, the athletics department found that intramural athletes preferred the current system.

The mentality that anyone can enjoy intramural sports at Brown is something Gidas particularly loves about the program. Though he has been playing soccer with

others from his department since the late 1980s, he only made Applied Math an official intramural team this semester.

The team consists of students, faculty and a few visiting scholars from “all over the world,” including Europe, the United States and South America, said Gidas, who managed to rally together a team three hours before the application’s deadline.

Soccer has held its appeal to Gidas since his childhood in Greece.

“I was born in, what was at the time, a third-world countr y,” he said. “Soccer is always something you can play. Even if you don’t have a good ball, you create one.”

Gidas added that he sees connections between soccer and mathematics. “The strategic element of soccer is part of why I like it,” he said. “You have the strategy to avoid blocking from other players — you have to make a split-second decision in response to an opponent who is quite intelligent.”

Back on the field, Gidas blocks a member of the opposing team, moving with the dexterity of a younger man, and he successfully defends the goal from the opposing team. Applied Math triumphs over the Swedish Medics with a score of 4-2, continuing its season-long winning streak, and Gidas high-fives his teammates, patting them on the back, joking around.

“A good mind is also a good body,” Gidas said. “Physical activity strengthens your mental thinking.

We do have official teams here, but intramural gives the opportunity for everybody else to participate.”

Ratty lunch ends in laptop disappearance continued from page 2 spilled out. She determined that the owner was a grad student. The victim stated that she arrived at Ship Street around 5:30 p.m. and parked her vehicle. She hid her pocketbook under a vest and put her GPS in the center console. She left the GPS holder on the front windshield. The victim stated that $10 was missing from her pocketbook along with her new GPS.

Providence Police took a report, and there are suspects at this time.

Nov. 2 5:13 p.m. Student stated that at 3 p.m., he was eating in the Sharpe Refector y and had his laptop on the seat next to him. He left at 3:30 p.m. and went home and an hour later he remembered that he left his laptop. He returned and spoke to several workers, but they could not find the laptop.

Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

a rt s i n b r i e f

Brownbrokers return to stage with musical

By Emily Kirkland Contributing Writer

Kayleigh Butera / Herald

Cecilia Salama’s ’12 untitled installation art features human and canine hair, among other media.

Salama’s ’12 sculptures offer a little hair of the dog Taking a break from installing her solo sculpture show Sunday, Cecilia Salama ’12 looked around the small gallery room at the half-dozen works she had already put up. “I think I’ve become completely numb to the fact that all this stuff is gross,” she mused.

Gross is in the eye of the beholder. That said, there is definitely a certain yuck factor to Salama’s untitled sculptures, which are on view on the second floor of List Art Center this week, with a closing reception Thursday evening. They are mixed media works, some of which feature glue- or concretecaked fabrics contorted into perpetual rumpled-ness. Others are coated with dun-colored resin.

And then, of course, there’s the hair — a “surprising” amount of it, Salama said. She took the bus to Pawtucket in search of dog fur — “there are no groomers in Providence,” she claimed — and pounded the pavement collecting the sweepings from Thayer Street hair salons. Then she stuffed the hair — big, tangled clods of it — into nylon stockings, creating pendular sculptures that swing gently from the ceiling and the walls.

Salama’s show is the culmination of an independent study project on art inspired by the body. She worked with Paul Myoda, assistant professor of visual art, who helped her find artistic precedents to respond to, like the messy, organic works of Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Eva Hesse.

After many weeks of research and planning, Salama made the works all at once so there could be “a strong dialogue between them all.”

“Mostly, I just like experimenting, playing around with different things, different forms,” Salama said.

“You can plan all you like, but you never know how it’s going to turn out,” she continued.

For Salama, the show’s dominant aesthetic is the contrast between “clean and dirty.” She said she used resin to give the homely works a kind of sheen, making them more visually complex.

“I still feel like there’s something very beautiful about it,” she said, looking around at her work, “even though it’s filthy.”

— Ben Hyman

Like tableslips, online and free for students to post! browndailyherald.com/flyerboard

Monday, November 9, 2009 | Page 5

“Leavittsburg, Ohio,” a new musical written by Nate Sloan ’09 that premieres this Thursday in Brown’s Stuart Theatre, brings more than a year of meetings, readings, rehearsals and late-night revisions to fruition.

For Brownbrokers — the group that has produced student-written musicals at Brown for more than 70 years — “Leavittsburg” is the first new show since sweeping changes two years ago that brought more faculty involvement and department resources to the program.

Under the new system, each show spends a year in development and a year in production, said Aaron Malkin ’10, a Brownbrokers board member and the assistant director for “Leavittsburg.” Faculty members direct the shows instead of the student directors of past productions. In addition, the show’s budget is considerably larger, said Mike Williams ’10, a fellow board member and one of the musical’s leads.

According to Malkin, the Brownbrokers board received four proposals for new shows last December.

Of those four, two were chosen for further development: “Leavittsburg” and “Adding Up,” by Sarah Kay ’10 and Drew Nobile ’07. Through collaboration between the writers, the Brownbrokers board, Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Lowry Marshall and Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Andy Hertz, the proposals were transformed into two

full-length musicals. These were then given staged readings in late spring.

On the basis of those two readings, Malkin said, the board and the two faculty members chose “Leavittsburg” for the fall season.

“Leavittsburg” tells the story of a girl from rural Ohio who returns home for spring break during her first year at a prestigious university in New York City. She brings her boyfriend, an urban sophisticate, with her. Complications ensue.

“The show is based on personal experience, but it’s greatly exaggerated,” said Sloan, a New York City native who once traveled to Oklahoma with a girlfriend to meet her family.

As part of the new development process, Sloan worked closely with faculty mentors and the Brownbrokers board in developing the plot and the characters. Marshall said that the resulting changes ranged from the inclusion of a single joke to the addition of a chorus that brought the cast to 22 from an original six.

“There were never any ultimatums, just suggestions,” Sloan said of the development process. “Invariably correct suggestions,” he added.

“I don’t want to say I feel blessed,” Sloan said, “but I really do feel I’ve been lucky to work with such talented people.”

Marshall, who is directing the show, was quick with praise for Sloan’s collaborative skills.

“He’s voracious in soliciting advice,” Marshall said.

What’s past is prologue Many distinguished writers have

come out of the Brownbrokers program. According to the Brownbrokers Web site, the group was founded in 1935 by Burt Shevelove, who went on to write “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

Other alumni include Alfred Uhry ’58 (who wrote “Parade” and “Driving Miss Daisy”) and David Yazbek ’82, who composed scores for “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Full Monty.” A Brownbrokers show by Stephen Karam ’02, “Emma,” won the American College Theatre Festival’s Best Musical Award in 2002 and was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Karam’s new play, “Speech and Debate,” was the second most produced new play in America last year, according to Marshall.

According to John Emigh, professor emeritus of theatre arts and performance studies, the Brownbrokers program is highly unusual among Brown’s peer schools. Student-written shows at Harvard, Columbia and other universities tend to be comic reviews with skits and songs, not full musicals.

“It’s very uniquely Brown,” said Williams.

But the Brownbrokers program also has what Emigh called “a checkered history.”

As he put it, “Brownbrokers presented some lovely shows, but also many that earned less than rave reviews — and still more that earned rave reviews they didn’t deserve.”

“There was one show called ‘Ugly continued on page 6

Page 6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A rts & C ulture

‘On a Boat’ mixes styles, cultures

By Kayleigh Butera Contributing Writer

This weekend, a cruise director’s voice instructed audience members to sit back and prepare for a journey of cultural experiences. The cruise ship was the Salomon auditorium, and the cultural tour guides were Brown’s Mezcla dancers.

Mezcla is a student-run Latino performing arts group. The group’s name — Spanish for “mixture” — reflects its mission to “explore and convey the diversity and richness of Latino culture,” according to Mezcla’s Web site.

Dancer Jennifer Gutierrez ’12 said Mezcla is just as much about community as it is about performing arts. “It unites students through dance,” she said.

True to its mission of mixture, Mezcla’s fall show, “On a Boat,” guided the audience on an international “cruise” of a medley of Latino dances.

The show was high-energy from the very first port-of-call, Brazil. In this number, eight female dancers in jingling belts performed an animated samba that set up the spirited atmosphere for the rest of the night.

The next stop was Venezuela, where two couples performed a stylish salsa. The women’s red dresses encircled the dancers as they spun and flipped over their partners’ backs. A playful cumbia dance followed, with performers in traditional Colombian costume.

Next up was a minor geographical detour. In a guest appearance, Badmaash, Brown’s Indian dance troupe, took the stage. Dancers

with bells on their ankles and hands towards the skies drummed their bare feet on the stage. While this performance was unlike the other dances culturally, its spirit and passion aligned perfectly with the rest of the evening.

Back on the Latino tour, the audience enjoyed a colorful flamenca performance whose pace accelerated to a lively rhythm. A Cuban salsa, complete with playful partner switching and lifts, followed the flamenca dance.

Brown’s student mariachi band made a guest appearance as well.

They serenaded the audience with guitars, violins, trumpets and festive shouts.

Next came a Dominican-style merengue infused with reggaeton, a fun combination of traditional and modern dance that reflects Mezcla’s ability to combine and unite diverse elements.

In an interesting twist, guest performers Unnatural Selection, a student break-dancing group, adapted to the theme of the night. A few technical difficulties at Friday’s performance meant that their own music would not play, but the dancers were not fazed, and they went on to break-dance to Latin guitar music.

They adjusted their rhythm, and the resulting dance was an impressive — and fortuitous ­­— cross-cultural performance.

Mezcla wrapped up the night with modern hip-hop dances in front of projected graphics of New York and Puerto Rico. In a final burst of color, the dancers walked down the aisles, waving the flags of the various countries whose dance styles had been performed.

Monday, November 9, 2009

“There’s a kind of delightful uncertainty.”

— Dennis Kozee ’10, on the production of “Leavittsburg, Ohio”

tear d own that wall

Frederic Lu / Herald

Saturday night’s Freedom Without Walls Gala in Sayles, part of a series of events put on by the German department, marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

‘Leavittsburg’ tells tale of Midwestern spring break continued from page 5 and a Vegetable,’” he said. “I don’t really remember what it was about, but it had a lot of puns in it.”

Emigh described one year when the Brownbrokers board was left without a script. They performed a show by Woody Allen instead. Another year, they lacked a composer.

So, Emigh said, they borrowed songs from “satiric songwriter” Tom Lehrer and stitched them together into a plot.

Professional musicals usually spend many years being workshopped and revised before they are ever produced. But the previous Brownbrokers program required students to write, develop and produce an original musical within a single calendar year — something Malkin called “an impossible task.”

Marshall agreed, calling the

process “frantic.”

Along with the accelerated schedule, the old program paired student-written musicals with often inexperienced student directors.

Writers attempting their first musical sometimes ended up working with first-time directors, Emigh said, which magnified the inherent challenges in producing new work.

“It was such a hard thing to ask of students, regardless of talent,” Marshall said. “It was almost cruel.”

The entertaining Mr. Sloan Sloan said he had benefitted enormously from the faculty guidance. When Sloan began writing “Leavittsburg,” he had no experience in musical theater. His exposure to the Brownbrokers program came through a class in writing musicals Hertz offered last fall. Sloan

said he had been a “musical theater geek” as a kid but had abandoned it in high school. Although he was a music concentrator and had been composing for years, his only involvement in theater at Brown was as a musician in the pit.

“This show just arrived in our inbox an hour before the deadline,” Williams said. “We had no idea he was out there.”

Sloan’s proposal was especially unusual in that he planned to write music, book and lyrics for “Leavittsburg.” Marshall said most writers work in teams, with one responsible for music and the other for the words.

Last spring, after “Leavittsburg” was selected for production, Sloan graduated. He left Rhode Island to begin a doctoral program in historical musicality at Stanford just as the show got underway this fall. Malkin said that meant frequent phone calls and e-mails among Marshall, Malkin and Sloan, who also flew out for crucial periods like casting.

“It was crazy,” Marshall said, adding that for the next show, they’d attempt to select a group of writers who’d still be at Brown during production.

But Dennis Kozee ’10 and Ned Riseley ’12, both actors in “Leavittsburg,” said the excitement of working on a new show had outweighed the added stress.

“There’s a kind of delightful uncertainty,” Kozee said.

Williams said he valued the chance to shape the character he was playing.

“I love the circle of exchange between actor and writer,” he said, even though that entailed a script still undergoing changes as the last week of rehearsals began. According to Marshall, two weeks before the premiere, Sloan added an entirely new scene to the second act.

“I just want to say sorry to all the cast members who had to keep waiting for their lines and music,” Sloan said, laughing.

But all difficulties aside, Sloan said he is now considering a career in musical theater.

“This has been the most thrilling experience of my life,” he said.

SportsWeekend The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, November 9, 2009 | Page 7

No wins, but not a total wash for w. icers

By Andrew Braca Sports Editor

The women’s hockey team picked up a point against two of the top four teams in the ECAC over the weekend.

After battling to a scoreless tie with Quinnipiac on Friday night in Meehan Auditorium, Bruno fell to Princeton by a 5-0 score the following day, moving to 1-4-1 overall and 0-3-1 in ECAC play.

“It was okay,” said Head Coach Digit Murphy after the Quinnipiac game. “It wasn’t great, but we didn’t lose, and we got a point.”

Brown 0, Quinnipiac 0 (OT) The Bears and Bobcats (5-3-2, 3-0-1) combined for 66 shots, but Brown goalie Katie Jamieson ’13 and Quinnipiac netminder Victoria Vigilanti stopped them all to post dual shutouts and secure the tie.

“Our goaltending was solid, as it has been,” Murphy said. “Jamieson’s been playing really well.”

The game opened shakily for the Bears, who took two penalties in the first four minutes — the first for having too many players on the ice — but they were able to kill off both Bobcats’ power plays.

“Our kids getting mixed up on the bench, especially since they were upperclassmen, that was frustrating for me, but we did kill it,” Murphy said. “Our kill has been pretty good all year.”

Brown rallied to end the first period with a 13-9 advantage in shots, but Viglianti made the save of the

Now that the World Series is over and the Yankees are once again champions of baseball, the world, universe, whatever, it’s a great time to step back and reflect on what we learned. Baseball is a simple game, and here are some simple lessons.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Princeton took a lead early in Saturday’s game against Brown and never relinquished it, for a 5-0 final.

game in the 13th minute when she fell on her back but still managed to swat the puck out of the crease.

“There were points in the game where they could have scored on us and we could have scored on them,” Murphy said. “It was just frustrating because I felt like we had opportunities and we just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”

The Bobcats turned the tables to post a 13-6 shot advantage in

Alum kicks his way into major league soccer

By Benjy Asher Spor ts Staf f Writer

Coming into his freshman year of college, Jef f Larentowicz ’05 certainly didn’t envision a professional soccer career. In fact, he was skeptical about his prospects at the collegiate level.

“I thought Brown was a bit of a reach for my talent level,” Larentowicz said.

But now, Larentowicz is thriving on the American soccer stage in his fifth season with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. On Oct. 25, Larentowicz had possibly the biggest moment of his career, when he sent a free kick into the back of the net in the closing minutes of New England’s final regular season match. The goal, Larentowicz’s first of the season, gave the Revolution a 1-0 win over Columbus Crew and clinched the league’s final playoff spot.

Despite Larentowicz’s low expectations coming into Brown, Head Coach Mike Noonan gave him opportunities from the start.

Though he was recruited as a forward and was listed under that position for the duration of his freshman year, Noonan recognized that Larentowicz, the son of a soccer

Hahn ’10: MLB lessons learned

coach out of West Chester, Pa., possessed remarkable adaptability and aptitude for the game, and inserted him into the rotation as a defender from the outset.

“One of the things that I liked the most about Jef f when I recruited him was that he was ver y versatile,” Noonan said. “We plugged him in where our need was at the time, and Jeff just got on with what the team’s needs were, and he’s still doing that today with the Revolution.”

Larentowicz did not disappoint, playing in all 16 games that season and leading Brown to a share of the Ivy League championship and earning All-Ivy honorable mention in the process. His first collegiate goal came in the first half of the team’s final league game, en route to a title-clinching 3-0 win at Harvard.

“It was a big game and we were all getting up for it,” Larentowicz said. “We had a lot of our students come up for the game, and I just remember scoring the goal and running over to all the fans and celebrating — that was really special.”

Larentowicz continued to excel in his sophomore year, earning seccontinued on page 9

the second period, but the Bears weathered the storm.

“The momentum shifted a few times, and we held the fort and then got out of it, whereas in the past we’d kind of get caught in that vortex kind of thing,” Murphy said.

Bruno surged again in the third period to tally 13 shots, notching four of them during the team’s continued on page 8

Fear the Yankees Saying the Yankees are really good is an understatement. I don’t know if you noticed, but they basically destroyed the American League East, rampaged through the playoffs and rightfully won a title. Of course, spending $400 million on some of the best free agents, having the highest payroll by a stadium-load and having essentially no weak spots tends to do that. Don’t hate the game, hate the system — and the system is stacked in the Yankees’ favor. The bad news is they’ve got more money to spend this offseason. The worse news is they finally figured out how to spend it wisely.

More money is better than less money The big-market teams dominated the playoffs this year, and really the playoff race. Large-market teams with the ability to print money are able to outspend their fellow small market teams. Sure, there are arguments about profit-maximizing owners, but it still comes down to population density. Especially with the recession, we saw the gap between baseball’s haves and have-nots grow wider.

You should play in the NL Sure, you can scream “sample size,” but looking at the AL players returning to the National League, one starts to get the idea that the NL is just plain bad. Matt Holliday hit .286/.378/.454 with Oakland — pretty good numbers — but after joining St. Louis, he put up an insane .353/.419/.604. Remember John Smoltz, Brad Penny or Vicente Padilla? Smoltz’s ERA+, where 100 is the average and higher is better, jumped from 57 with Boston to 97 with St. Louis. Penny jumped from 84 to 165, while Padilla went from 92 to 130. George Sherrill, Adam LaRoche, Edwin Encarnacion. I could go on, but you get the point.

Zack Greinke is amazing Easily the Cy Young winner, it’s not even close. With three-plus pitches, Greinke destroyed the AL. He posted a 2.16 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 203 strikeouts in 229.1 innings with a 4.75 K/BB ratio. According to fangraphs. com, he also led the league in Fielding Independent Pitching (2.33), Win Probability Added (6.07) and Wins Above Replacement (9.4). All those fancy math stats and traditional stats and eyeballs say the same thing: Greinke is an ace.

Joe Mauer and Albert Pujols continued on page 8

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports W eekend

Monday, November 9, 2009

“The defense did a really good job today.”

— W. Ice Hockey Head Coach Digit Murphy

Hahn ’10: MLB lessons W. hockey skids through weekend continued from page 7

too I’ll take a plus bat, plus defender and plus leadership rolled into one.

Mauer hit an incredible .365/.444/.587, leading the AL with a 177 OPS+ and 8.2 WAR. Pujols hit .327/.443/.658 with a 188 OPS+ and 8.4 WAR. These two are the best at their positions, and it isn’t close.

Doing drugs Hello A-Roid! It’s okay, we’ll let your loosey-goosey era slide now that you’re a champion. Manny? How’s that baby coming? That fertility drug didn’t seem to slow you down. It’s okay though, Bronson Arroyo apparently did roids too, though clearly it hasn’t really helped, but at least his honesty and media attacks are entertaining. My personal favorite: Tim Lincecum. No wonder his fastball velocity is always so high. Maybe you can be like Tiny Tim too!

Blackmailing a Mets GM is the new rage Thank you, Omar Minaya, you are correct. A beat writer from some obscure newspaper who is secretly petitioning for a job is the single reason why the Mets were terrible this year.

We’re all out to get you. As for you, Steve Phillips, way to go? Should have handled it like Letterman. Unfortunately, Phillips’ departure doesn’t make Baseball Tonight any more educational or insightful.

Instant replay and umpires Just put in instant replay already.

It won’t take that much longer. It will save everyone embarrassment.

That’s a lot of lessons. Some good, some bad. I hope everyone enjoyed the 2009 season. I know I did.

Jonathan Hahn ’10 knows it’s time to hibernate till spring.

continued from page 7 only full two-minute power play of the game. But the Bears were never able to score the winning goal because they could not take advantage of chances around the crease.

Murphy said the Brown players were not “chopping down trees in front of the net. We really have to put the puck in when you’re in front of the net, and I think that was something that we didn’t do well tonight.”

Neither team could take advantage of a pair of overtime shots.

The Bobcats entered the final five minutes on a power play, but the Bears’ defense shut them down.

“They’re starting to play experienced D, breaking the puck out,” Murphy said. “I thought the defense did a really good job to-

day.”

Jamieson posted 32 saves and Vigilanti came up with 34 as Bruno played to its first tie in ECAC play since February 2008 and its first scoreless tie since Feb. 3, 2006 against Harvard.

Murphy said she saw a lot of positives, including strong play from forwards Jenna Dancewicz ’11, Laurie Jolin ’13 and the line of Erin Connors ’10, Kath Surbey ’10 and Erica Kromm ’11.

“I can’t really pinpoint anything, but I know that the whole game was more ups than downs, so I’m happy with that,” she said.

Princeton 5, Brown 0 Jamieson added 33 saves on Saturday, but the Tigers (4-1-1, 3-0-1) were too much for the Bears.

Princeton jumped on the board just 14 seconds into the game, and

then took a two-goal lead under a minute from the first intermission on a sharp play. Tigers’ goalie Cassie Seguin slapped the puck to center-ice, catching the Bears on a line change. Danielle DiCesare took the puck up the left side before centering it to Paula Romanchuk, who knocked it up and in.

Princeton scored twice more in the second frame on the strength of a 20-3 advantage in shots. Brown took four penalties in the period and surrendered a 5-on-3 goal.

The Tigers added an insurance goal in a choppy third period that featured nine penalties. Bruno tallied 10 of its 18 shots in the final period, but could not avoid being blanked for the weekend.

The Bears will travel to Albany, N.Y., this weekend to face Union (2-8-0, 0-4-0) and RPI (3-6-3, 1-21).

www.browndailyherald.com

Monday, November 9, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports W eekend

“It’s certainly something to be able to say you beat every team in the league.” — Wide receiver Bobby Sewall ’10.

Soccer-smart alum plays in the big leagues continued from page 7 ond team All-Ivy honors, but it was in his junior year when he really hit his stride.

In addition to first team All-Ivy and All-New England honors on the heels of another Ivy championship season, Larentowicz was named a second team All-American. Larentowicz said it was then that he started seriously thinking about professional soccer as a potential career path, and the summer after his junior year, he trained with a professional club in Sweden for six weeks.

“That was a great experience, and following all that, I thought maybe it was something I wanted to do,” Larentowicz said.

Larentowicz closed out his college career with another AllAmerican season and the following spring was selected in the fourth and final round of the MLS Draft in the Supplemental phase, as the Revolution took him with the third-to-last overall pick, with encouragement from Noonan.

“I told (New England head coach) Steve Nicol that Jeff was going to be a better professional player than a college player,” Noonan said. “When he gets into a locker room, he’s not intimidated by anybody or anything, and you have to be able to hold your nerve when you first walk into a professional locker room.”

For Larentowicz, though, it was like the beginning of freshman year all over again, as he struggled with the uncertainty of whether or not he would get a chance to contribute.

“Coming in, I don’t think Steve Nicol had the highest hopes for me,” Larentowicz said. “I think he sort of saw me as a practice player, and he gave me a contract to see how I developed. But I don’t think he saw me as someone who was going to come on and play.”

Even Noonan admits that at first glance, Larentowicz may not look like a star.

“Jeff is not blessed with tremendous athleticism — he’d probably be in the bottom third of the Revolution in a speed contest or strength contest, but he is in the top third when it comes to soccer intelligence,” Noonan said.

“He’s got a gamesmanship intelligence, he knows how to win, he looks and finds the ways to win and he’s consistent in the way he approaches ever ything. So you know what you’re going to get consistently in his effort and his attitude.”

This time, Larentowicz didn’t get his chance quite as easily. In his first season with the Revolution, he played just one minute, designated to the reser ve team while New England went on to the MLS Cup final.

“I think that the first season playing with the reser ves, training with the team every day, and getting a feel for the way the game is played at the pro level was good for me,” Larentowicz said. “In college, people are encouraging you

at all times ... but at the professional level, people are there to take your job, so if you screw up in practice or in a game, they’re going to let you know about it. So there wasn’t much of a nurturing atmosphere from my teammates at that point.”

Early in the 2006 season, Larentowicz got his chance — New England was plagued by injuries to several key players. Once again, it was Larentowicz’s versatility that gave him a chance to break into the rotation, as he played four different positions — right midfield, center midfield, right back and center back — in his first four appearances.

“I think the coaches saw me as a utility player, who could go in at any position and get the job done,” Larentowicz said.

A watershed moment for Larentowicz came in the fifth game of that season, in a May 2006 matchup with FC Dallas. With the team trailing, 4-0, at halftime, Nicol substituted Larentowicz in at center midfield.

“I played well, and we still lost the game, but I showed well for myself, and from that point on I think the coaches really trusted me,” Larentowicz said. Shortly thereafter, Larentowicz earned a starting spot with New England in 19 games that season, and in the three seasons since then, Larentowicz has started in the majority of games for the Revolution, compiling nine goals and nine assists in his MLS career.

Larentowicz credits much of his development at the professional level to playing alongside Shalrie Joseph, a five-time all-star midfielder for New England.

“We play a system where I can just run around and do the defending and the dirty work and retrieve the ball for the team and sort of learn on the go,” Larentowicz said. “Over the years, Shalrie and other players have developed more trust in me and understood my abilities.”

The team has enjoyed great success throughout Larentowicz’s career, making the playoffs each year, including two more finals appearances in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

Heading into the final weekend of the 2009 regular season, the Revolution looked to be on the verge of failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2001, as they went into their final game tied for the final spot with three other clubs, two of which would be favored by the league’s tiebreaking procedures.

“The odds against us were incredible,” Larentowicz said.

“I don’t even know if anyone on our own team would have gone to Vegas and bet on us because there were so many scenarios that needed to take place for us to even come close to getting into the playoffs.”

But losses to all three of those teams put New England in control of its own destiny, and in the game’s 79th minute, Larentowicz

Page 9

scored the game’s only goal to seal a spot for the Revolution.

“At my position you don’t get a ton of chances to score goals, but I think when I have had my chances I’ve taken them,” Larentowicz said. “It was important for me because I practice free kicks a lot and to score felt great, and it was also important for the team to have that little bit of momentum and confidence to go into the first game of the playoffs.”

New England earned a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire in its first game of the postseason, but a 2-0 loss in Game 2 on Saturday night knocked the Revolution out of the playoffs on the basis of aggregate goals.

Though the season came to a disappointing end, Larentowicz remains a celebrated figure in the Brown soccer program. He is one of several players under Noonan to go on to have professional success, including Cor y Gibbs ’01, who has played overseas and for the U.S. national team, and Andrew Daniels ’07, who has spent time with FC Dallas.

Larentowicz’s jersey from an MLS title game hangs in Noonan’s office for visiting recruits to see, and Larentowicz himself is still a presence in the program, making regular trips back to Providence to stay connected with the team.

“We’re happy that he continues to come back to Rhode Island — he came down last spring to talk to the guys,” Noonan said. “He’s just a regular person, and very, very thankful for his Brown experience and his Brown degree.”

‘Huge’ win for Bruno after loss to Penn continued from page 1 and were just 4-of-12 on third-down conversions.

A.J. Cruz ’13 led the Bears in the secondary, with eight tackles — including one for a loss — and an interception, his third of the season.

With Yale trailing, 35-21, and just under seven minutes left in the game, Yale quarterback Patrick Witt dropped back to pass, just six yards from the goal line. Witt went for the end zone, seeing his receiver in single coverage against Cruz. But the freshman cornerback leaped and intercepted the ball in the end zone, ending Yale’s drive.

“That cornerback, No. 12, that guy can jump,” Witt said.

Estes called Cruz a playmaker whom other teams were “picking on” — but at their own peril.

“I think they look at it and say, ‘Freshman,’” Estes said. “They look at his size, and say, ‘We can beat him.’

They had some pretty big receivers, but A.J. is a hell of a player.”

Estes said he thought the rest of the secondary played well, too. They helped hold Witt, a transfer from Nebraska, to 28-of-41 passing for 285 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

Witt found most of his success with screen passes in the first half.

With the Bears putting pressure on the quarterback, Witt dumped passes off to his backs.

“We were able to neutralize the rush first half,” Witt said. “But obviously, they made some adjustments in the locker room at halftime.”

Estes said his defense simply wasn’t doing its job in the first half and was getting beaten by screen passes because of it.

At halftime, they made sure to remedy the problem. “We changed some things up defensively to make sure that we spied the back, and that helped out,” he said. After scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter, Yale had just nine points in the second half.

Yale was the only team left that Brown’s seniors had played, but not beaten, in their careers.

“It’s certainly something to be able to say you beat every team in the league,” Sewall said.

Coming off a loss to Penn, the team’s win over Yale was “huge” for team morale, he added.

The victory put the Bears in sole possession of third place in the Ivy League. Harvard and Penn, which both hold 6-2 overall records and unbeaten 5-0 marks in league play, are tied at the top of the league standings. The Bears are mathematically eliminated from a back-to-back championship.

But they will return to Ivy League action with pride on the line against Dartmouth at Brown Stadium this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. They wrap up the 2009 season Nov. 21 on the road at Columbia.

“After that loss to Penn, we decided to take it one game at a time, finish off the rest of our season, go 3-0 in November,” said co-captain and offensive tackle Paul Jasinowski ’10. “We took step one and now we go on and focus on Dartmouth.”

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, November 9, 2009

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

Middle East no simple matter To the Editor: We would like to address Avi Schaefer’s ’13 concern about the character of Common Ground (“To those interested in creating peace in the Middle East,” Nov. 2). Our full name is Common Ground: Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel, and our stated mission is to supplement campus dialogue with voices and perspectives that we believe are under-represented in mainstream American media and political discourse. Common Ground meetings are not internal discussion forums, but are geared towards planning campuswide events.

Common Ground was established nine years ago by students of diverse political leanings, connected by a commitment to the equality of human life and the pursuit of just peace in Palestine and Israel. Common Ground today does not operate from a set political platform but rather from a shared belief that security and human rights should be a birthright for all. “Common Ground,” therefore, refers to our common understanding that before peace is possible, continuing injustice must be brought to light.

Our speakers are often critical of current Israeli policies because the status quo of occupation is not conducive to the just and equal peace we hope to see in the region. As Schaefer points out, we do not bring speakers who “represent the general view of Israeli society” because we believe that these voices already dominate mainstream American discourse. We bring neither Yisrael Beitenu nor Hamas because mere juxtaposition of diametrically opposed voices does not achieve our goal of fostering nuanced discussion.

It instead perpetuates a simplistic and unproductive polar binary, which must be overcome in order to achieve peace and common ground.

As a group aiming to supplement and diversify (rather than encapsulate and summarize) discourse, we bring speakers whose politics and identities reflect a complexity inimical to the language of “pro” and “anti” so often employed in criticism of our work. Recent examples include Anat Biletzki, former head of Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem; democratic Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti; former IDF soldier and human rights advocate Micha Kurz and prolific Middle East historian Joel Beinin. These speakers, and numerous others, demonstrate how people of different backgrounds can speak out together against systematic inequality.

We are working towards a sustainable and just peace, centered around respect for human equality and advocacy for basic rights. Common Ground shares these values not only with peace-oriented Israelis and Palestinians, but with global civil society and international law. If concern for humanity doesn’t seem so “common” in campus discourse — and if such a platform merits accusations of “bias” — then perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the grounds upon which claims to “balance” are based.

Eric Axelman ’12 Rahel Dette ’13 Maria Fregoso ’10 Lucas Mason-Brown ’13 Anna Samel ’12 Members of Common Ground Nov. 8

t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief Steve DeLucia

Managing Editors Michael Bechek Chaz Firestone

Deputy Managing Editors Nandini Jayakrishna Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol

editorial Arts & Culture Editor Ben Hyman Features Editor Sophia Li Metro Editor George Miller Metro Editor Joanna Wohlmuth News Editor Seth Motel News Editor Jenna Stark Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Alex Mazerov Asst. Sports Editor Katie Wood Graphics & Photos Chris Jesu Lee Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Photo Editor Kim Perley Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Jesse Morgan Sports Photo Editor production Ayelet Brinn Copy Desk Chief Rachel Isaacs Copy Desk Chief Marlee Bruning Design Editor Jessica Calihan Design Editor Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Neal Poole Web Editor Post- magazine Arthur Matuszewski Editor-in-Chief Kelly McKowen Editor-in-Chief

Senior Editors Rachel Arndt Isabel Gottlieb Scott Lowenstein

Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Alexander Hughes Jonathan Spector Directors Sales Ellen DaSilva Sales Claire Kiely Finance Katie Koh Asst. Finance Jilyn Chao Alumni Relations Christiana Stephenson Managers Local Sales Kelly Wess National Sales Kathy Bui University Sales Alex Carrere Credit and Collections Matt Burrows Opinions Alyssa Ratledge Sarah Rosenthal

Opinions Editor Opinions Editor

Editorial Page Board James Shapiro Editorial Page Editor Matt Aks Board member Nick Bakshi Board member Zack Beauchamp Board member Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member

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chris jesu lee

e d i to r i a l

Groupthink As the Herald reported Friday, student involvement in Group Independent Study Projects (GISPs) is well past its heyday. GISPs were most popular in the earliest years after they first became an option in 1969 as part of the New Curriculum. The 1974-75 school year saw 50 GISPs, but more recently, the number of GISPs in a given year has generally been closer to 20.

One reason GISPs have become less prevalent is that more students are now organizing group independent projects through individual academic departments. To enroll in a departmental independent study course, students need only find a willing faculty adviser and perhaps consult with the department chair.

By contrast, GISPs require students to go through a more rigorous process that involves submitting a proposed syllabus, bibliography and evaluation plan to the College Curriculum Council for approval.

The GISP approval process is modeled after the process professors go through in creating new courses, and it gives groups a unique opportunity to engage with pedagogical questions about a course’s scope, methods and objectives. Students participating in approved GISPs get to have the title of the GISP noted on their transcripts. The departmental independent study option requires far less paperwork, consistent with Brown’s policy of minimizing administrative obstacles to students’ academic choices.

While GISPs and departmental group independent study projects have very similar goals, this two-tiered system crucially allows groups of students a wider range of experiences. We don’t believe that reduced student involvement in GISPs is necessarily a cause for concern. However, because the goals of GISPs and departmental group independent projects are so similar, we believe that each could stand to learn a little from the other.

Because the approval process is considered an essential part of the GISP experience, additional students

are currently not allowed to join a GISP once it has been approved. We appreciate the concern underlying this rule but believe that it is overly restrictive. A student, especially one who goes abroad for a semester, might have a deep interest in the subject matter of a GISP but might only find out about the GISP after it has already approved. If the student can demonstrate his commitment and interest to the GISP’s creators and faculty sponsor, he should be allowed to enroll.

Students not directly involved in the initial approval process could offer additional, unique viewpoints on a course’s pedagogical effectiveness.

The formal GISP process is advantageous from a publicity perspective — the Curricular Resource Center helps get the word out about GISPs in the making. Students doing independent studies in departments should have similar options available to them. If a student wants to pull together a group for a departmental independent study project, the department should help that student find interested peers, perhaps through an e-mail announcement or a posting on a departmental bulletin board.

GISPs also benefit from a certain level of institutional recognition; current courses (such as ENGN 0090: “Management of Industrial and Non-Profit Organizations”) have evolved directly from GISPs. The possibility of a transition to a full course should also be open to departmental group independent projects.

Department chairs should at least be aware of the content of recent independent projects so that they can get a better sense of what the current course offerings might be lacking.

We like the current system and aren’t advocating anything radical. We only think that a little minor tweaking could enhance both of the group independent study options available to students.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, November 9, 2009 | Page 11

PassiveAggressiveColumns.com

BY IVY CHANG Opinions Columnist Let’s say it’s just another one of those nights.

Every cup from the 12-pack of ramen you bought at the beginning of the semester has become steadily more unappetizing. But you have few other options. Nutella straight from the jar? Stale chips? You schlump downstairs to the communal kitchen to heat up some water.

Upon opening the fridge to get water, you spy a plate of cupcakes, just chillin’ there under Saran wrap. Your stomach responds excitedly.

If only you had the time to bake.

With midterms consuming every last second of your life, you’ve had no time to treat yourself this week. You’ve suffered enough.

There are, like, 20 cupcakes on that tray, just taking up space and squishing everyone else’s food in the fridge. It couldn’t hurt to just take one, albeit without asking. No one would know it was you, anyway, if you were quick enough!

So, what do you do? Steal a cupcake or turn back to your cup of cardboard strips and sodium?

Hopefully, you chose to stick to your own food.

Having kitchens is great. They provide nice opportunities for supplementing a rather monotonous diet of hot ham on bulky rolls, spicy withs and Odwalla bars.

In an ideal world, everyone would be conscientious and respectful of other people’s property. Perhaps an even more ideal world

would include a private kitchen space for ever y student. However, reality is harsh, and most underclassmen don’t have the choice of living off campus or in dorms with such amenities.

They are pretty much forced to give others the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their personal food items and the maintenance of the communal space.

Leaving dirty dishes out and moldy food in the fridge is pretty gross, but such issues are always resolved in due time. Dishes get

of people sneaking bites from birthday cakes in the fridge that weren’t theirs.

In my Grad Center tower last year, things escalated beyond the usual utensil and cooking-pot thefts. People would lose food during unexplained — possibly passive aggressive — cleaning sessions that swept fridges and shelves nearly bare. Someone briefly “borrowed” a kitchen microwave.

The CAs ended up having to send out a rather embarrassing mass e-mail telling us many things that we already should have known.

It’s hard to live in a place where you can’t even trust your neighbors.

washed because they need to be reused and moldy food gets thrown out when it starts looking like a miniature ecosystem.

Deliberate thieving of other people’s food items, however, is inexcusable. It ruins the community spirit. It’s hard to live in a place where you can’t even trust your neighbors.

A friend of mine once left a large bowl of raw chocolate cake batter in a dorm kitchen for a few minutes, only to return later to discover it scraped completely clean. Another friend’s leftover pizza would almost always mysteriously vanish, even when labeled with his name. And it wasn’t too uncommon to hear

Thefts aren’t limited to dorms. A recent posting on PassiveAggressiveNotes.com, in which a victim of cream cheese theft admonishes the “community” for behaving in such a manner, actually comes from the Department of Computer Science here at Brown.

These could be isolated cases, but, no matter how far or few, they contribute to general feelings of anger, distrust and misanthropy.

The shield of anonymity provided by a communal kitchen is nigh impenetrable. This is what gives it the potential to become a breeding ground for food theft and other misdeeds.

With so many people living in one building, it’s

hard for even roommates to realize that one of their own is the perpetrator of the infamous organic hummus theft of the week.

Anonymity is a sly sort of demon. Arthur Beaman and Bonnel Klentz’s oft-cited field study shows that even cute little trick-or-treating children aren’t safe from its pervasive influence. Masked children are more likely to defy instructions limiting the amount of candy they take, as opposed to children whose identities are made more obvious.

With proper cooperation and respect, communal kitchens live up to their nice-sounding name. They foster “communities” and become nice spaces for sharing ingredients, learning new recipes from fellow residents and holding impromptu gatherings that revolve around tasty food.

The urge to sample food that isn’t yours gets the best of us. At the same time, it’s so easy to just step back and remember to respect other people’s property, regardless of whether or not they’re present.

If you’re really that starved for something new, put up a Facebook status about it. Seriously. You’re sure to get a few responses offering snacks.

People are usually generous and understanding, as long as their stuff isn’t being stolen.

Ivy Chang ’10 was a naïve sophomore when she lost those cupcakes, but she still cries about them sometimes. She can be reached at ivy_chang@brown.edu.

Increasing the education gap

BY JONATHAN TOPAZ Opinions Columnist The majority of Brown students can breathe a sigh of relief that the Rhode Island Senate seems to be turning against the implementation of a student tax. The Oct. 29 Senate meeting did not feature discussion of a potential bill that would tax out-of-state students up to $300 per year, and if the proposal is not reestablished in January, the legislation will become inactive.

As Brown students celebrate this small victory in the face of next year’s tuition increase, a disturbing trend is developing at public universities across the country. American public universities are greatly increasing tuition, by an average of 6.5 percent. At the same time, schools are cutting costs on facilities, faculty, resources and technology. It is apparent that students are, as Jane Wellman, executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability, puts it, “paying more and getting less.”

The national trend certainly has devastating consequences here in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education voted again to vastly increase tuition for the state’s public universities. In-state students attending the University of Rhode Island will not merely see a five-percent hike in their room and board fees, but an astonishing 9.9 percent jump in their tuition. Since 2004, tuition and other fees for Rhode Island public universities have skyrocketed. This year, three public universities increased costs by ten percent and, since 2004, fees have in-

creased by 64 percent for URI, 72 percent for the Community College of Rhode Island, and 75 percent for Rhode Island College.

While it is expedient for politicians to point out that the Department of Education received an unprecedented $3 billion of stimulus funding, the numbers are misleading. Education stimulus funding largely functioned as a form of life support for states and districts that are barely hanging on. In addition to the large portion of that money that went to districts desperately attempting to stay afloat, much went to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s ambitious plan to “turn around” America’s

have devastating consequences for middle class families. It is inevitable that, without the expansion of financial aid, students will be forced to drop out of college or will be unable to apply.

Additionally, as argued by Paul Fain, senior reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, public universities run the risk of looking just like their private university counterparts.

By accepting wealthier, out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, public universities are turning their backs on lower and middle class in-state applicants.

The consequences that will follow are in-

By accepting wealthier, out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, public universities are turning their backs on lower and middle class in-state applicants. worst schools. These turnarounds, which Duncan implemented as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools, are designed to completely change the faculty, staff, culture and educational philosophy of suffering primary schools by shutting them down and reopening them with everything new except the students. Such drastic action costs about $5 million per school, and it has dominated much of the funding.

While it is still somewhat unclear how the state budget crises will affect financial aid packages, tuition increases will surely

credibly dire. First, public universities are creating a problematic situation for their states.

If state schools are educating fewer of their own citizens, they run the risk of extending their state’s budget problems into the future.

Second, by increasing tuition, public universities are precluding many of their students — particularly those with insufficient financial aid — from staying enrolled. Third, and perhaps most disturbing, is that public universities are on the brink of becoming much more elitist.

By accepting, as Fain puts it, “more wealthy and better-prepared students,” universities are

increasingly educating a narrower segment of the population.

Public universities exist on the premise that every segment of the population deserves an education, and by excluding any segment based on financial situation, they betray their mission. To educate a more economically homogeneous part of the population, to turn their backs on poorer students who desperately need a college education, to give preference to wealthier students, to attempt to increase revenue at the expense of young Americans who rely so heavily on public universities for their future would be catastrophic for the nation as a whole.

There is no easy answer to this problem.

Public universities are just attempting to stay afloat, and state legislators are forced to make extremely difficult decisions in a dreadful economic climate. However, with senior citizens getting a disproportionate amount of attention and funding from the upcoming health care bill (which will total hundreds of billions of dollars), young Americans are getting the short end of the stick. And with the higher educational system struggling, with public universities primed to select against the nation’s middle and lower classes, we are at risk of creating a much starker imbalance — economically, culturally and socially — of our generation.

Jonathan Topaz ’12 is a political science concentrator from New York City. He can be reached at Jonathan.Topaz@gmail.com.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

Putting the dog hair back in fine art

7

c a l e n da r tuesday, november 10

11 am — Freedom Without Walls: Tear Down This Wall!, Main Green

4 PM — Chinua Achebe Celebration And Welcome, Salomon 101

7:30 pm — “Taming the Wild Mind,” A Talk By Zen Teacher Joanne Friday, Manning Chapel

6:30 pm — A Forum on Hmong and Gran Torino, List 120

comics Birdfish | Matthew Weiss

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Chicken Curry, Black Bean and Sweet Potato Ragout, Couscous

Lunch — Pepperoni French Bread Pizza, Vegan Stuffed Peppers, Green Beans with Tomatoes

Dinner — Beef Shish Kabob, Vegan Black Bean Taco, Rice and Orzo Pilaf

67 / 49

65 / 43

Monday, November 9, 2009

7

Today, november 9

to m o r r o w

W. hockey survives rough weekend

t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s

5

to day

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Dinner — Country Style Baked Ham, Gnocchi A La Sorrentina, Oven Browned Potatoes

crossword Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbons

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